Sunday, March 22, 2009

Finishing Strong

We all made it home to California by Friday night. I don’t remember much about that evening except spending it in a vegetative state staring at the television before falling asleep. Saturday was a whirlwind of activity – bike trainer workout, obedience class with Stanley, Sharks day game, a quick nap, then out to Los Gatos with Nigel, who missed us while we were gone and needed some intense catching-up beers with Jeff. While the boys reveled in their Jagermeister shots, I ate pasta and drank water and wondered how I’d be feeling in the morning…

This really has been a great, huge, long training week, with my long ride and run in Arizona as well as two long swims. Today I wrapped up the week with a training run at the Mermaid Run. The Mermaid events are a local, all-women series of races (running and triathlon). I did one of the Mermaid sprint tris back in my first year of triathlon (the hardest OW swim I’ve ever had). Many of my Smofit racing friends had been training for the 5K or 10K at today’s race and when I saw a 50-minute run on my schedule for the day, I couldn’t resist – I asked Liz if it was OK to do it within the race, provided I did not blow my workout instructions and “race” the race. It was really exciting to see so many strong women tackling the distances for the first time or the thirtieth time, supporting each other throughout the race. It was freeeeeezing cold and drizzly and windy before the race start, and then just cold and windy for the actual race.

Our 10K crew – Justine, Sara, Melissa, Chris and me

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Two of our 5K racers Christina and Meredith, with cheerleader extraordinaire Marcia

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I ran with the camera too, because clearly I wouldn’t be able to go out too hard while juggling a camera, right? Here is a view along the San Francisco Bay shore where we ran.

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I love this finish line photo of Justine pushing herself hard for a new PR!

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After the race, with Meredith, Mary Sue (who I did not see before the race start - she finished her first race since hip surgery – it is so good to have her back again!) and Christina

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Go Melissa go!!!! Being paced in by Chris and Justine to finish her first 10k!

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So how did my workout go, you might ask? I was a good girl and stuck to my prescribed heart rate zones and paces and whatnot. But you see, I have not run a road 10k race in 3 years, not since just after I started running. And you know, what a shock, my body has improved a bit since then. I ran a new personal best 10k time (by 6-7 minutes – this course was actually 0.2 miles longer than a 10k) and placed 5th out of 72 in my age group. I literally jogged in to the finish line on my cool down, so I couldn’t be more amused by this!

And so, another week ends. A very good training week, full of work that I know will pay off down the line. When I consider that this week's mileage was comparable to the week of tri camp, and that I felt DEAD after camp, and that I feel GREAT today, it is especially encouraging!

Training totals for week 13 (March 16-22):
Swim: 5000 yards
Bike: 87.3 miles
Run: 19.7 miles
Strength: 1 hours
Total time: ~12.5 hours

12 comments:

Trishie said...

How cool to race with a group of amazing women ... need to look for some 'womens only' events near me. (I know of the Danskin and Irongirl races).

WTG on the finish... if you raced it you DEFNITEIYL would have made the podium !

Clarese said...

It looks like a great day! Good for all of you ladies :)

Jennifer Harrison said...

AWESOMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! :))))

beardies3 said...

Dedication and focus pay off! Way to go Molly. You and your coach are a dynamic duo with a plan for success.

ADC said...

Yay, well done. I love the PRs :-)

Missy said...

That rocks! Better than I am, I can't ever resist a race situation, it's bad.

Sherry said...

Racing with friends = the best!

I love all-women events! Even though there is often WAY too much "girl power", I tend to enjoy them in the same way that I enjoyed camp. We chicas are just so supportive of each other! :o)

Kudos to you for busting your old 10K PR. With three years of training under your belt now, I'm totally not surprised! So when are you gonna race one???

Awesome photos... as always! I REALLY need to move that Olympus up on my "want" list.

Iron Krista, "The Dog Mom" said...

That is seriously impressive! Congrats - can't wait to see what happens when you DO race!

Unknown said...

Great week and congrats on the "easy run" PR!! So exciting to see real improvement!!

Marit C-L said...

Great job Molly!!!!! I am so impressed by you and your friends - what an incredible race! And really great for you to go out and support! It's INCREDIBLE watching people do something for the first time, or pushing past where they thought possible. It brings a smile to my face - thanks for posting the pictures and I'm happy that you made it back safe and sound to CA! :)

ShirleyPerly said...

How wonderful to see how far you've come and also so many other motivating women in that race. I've actually never done an all-women's event or even a 10K before. I need to put both on my to-do list someday.

Kudos to you for sticking to your run plan during the race and doing so well anyway!

Liz Waterstraat said...

You NEVER said 5th in your AG! DETAILS!!!! I must have ALL the details to understand the full extent of how you rocked out.